Shut. Up. I finally made it to the end of the corporate challenge at work and I didn’t miss one day, not even when I was in Bali. My daily average steps were around 11,000 and my personal best was just last Sunday (expensive beer day) with 19,765 steps. I’ve even clocked up over one million steps over the whole campaign – blimey! I think I deserve a little something from the ladies nice things account for all that effort!

I’m determined not to dress like a hobo when I take the dogs to the park. Admittedly the early mornings when you’re not really awake make this a particular challenge, but normally I just grab something from the laundry pile (I know, cringe, but it’s only going to get wet/ dirty/ doggie anyway, so shoosh!) and get on with it. The dogs don’t seem to notice, or care for that matter, and everyone else at the park has that dishevelled and ‘please don’t notice this ensemble is part pyjamas’ look too. As I wrote before we’ve had wild, no make that bloody wild, weather here in Melbourne of late. If it hasn’t been blowing a freezing gale it’s been raining and sometimes they’ve joined forces. Which has made finding the right shoes for the park nigh on impossible. Cue chorus, I have nothing to wear. Repeat. My favourite boots were getting trashed and my least-worst chuck on bad shoes left me with cold, wet feet. And then I struck gold and thought this was clearly a case for funky gumboots. I ended up going one better, it is Spring now, and got these beauties. Guess you could call them gumshoes?? So now I have happy feet, a warm upper and a warm head. Did I tell you I had to buy a fancy hat too?

In my real day job I mostly shuffle paper, in black and white. All the while I do this I’m day-dreaming in colour. To help me walk the line between the two I joined a Global Corporate Challenge and was randomly put in a team with some other colleagues. The goal is to monitor our step activity for 125 days and become more active in the process. Truth be told, I just wanted the free pedometer and the motivation to get in shape for my mid-winter escape to Bali.

Today is day 34 and so far I’ve done 2304 steps, which ain’t half bad considering I’ve been sitting at my desk most of the day! Today is also day 15 of trying to find a new home, day 361 of feeling queasy and day 3 of my new direction to actively live, make and play. Wish me luck!